The Morning Stake: August 7th

Corky Oglesby’s Party

On Saturday night, Corky Oglesby invited everyone to his party. Oglesby has recently been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and he wanted to celebrate his life now rather than after he’s gone. A-J Media’s Don Williams recaps the event and the whole thing is great. From the article we learn that on January 13th, Texas Tech will host the inaugural Corky Classic:

Tech’s building a new $48 million indoor facility for the football and track and field teams to use beginning with the 2017-18 school year. Kittley said Oglesby recently told him, “Dang it, I want to be there for the first indoor meet in the new Sports Performance Center.”

Kittley revealed that Tech will host the inaugural Corky Classic on Jan. 13, and the event will be the season opener each year to come. Oklahoma State, Baylor, Texas and LSU have agreed to join Tech in the first one.

After the crowd subsequently responded with a standing ovation, Kittley said, “There is nobody that’s been more underappreciated —and I don’t mean to hurt anybody’s feelings — but there’s been nobody more underappreciated than this man right here. Forty-eight years. Corky Oglesby’s an icon. Corky Oglesby is Texas Tech.”

Texas Tech Baseball

By Kelby Tomlinson’s own admission, it was something of an accident that he went from unrecruited in Oklahoma to bespectacled utility man for the San Francisco Giants.

Raised in Chickasha, a 16,000-person town less than an hour outside Oklahoma City, Tomlinson was far from a touted prospect during his days at Elgin High School. He wouldn’t have drawn any offers to play collegiate ball if not for some good luck and a supportive grandfather.

“It’s a little bit of a long story and kind of an accident,” Tomlinson said, when asked to explain how he ended up at Seward County Community College in Liberal, Kansas.

Texas Tech Football

Four downs with safety Vaughnte Dorsey.

How well do you know your twin?

If you would like to continue to get kicked in the crotch, here’s Rivals’ Rob Cassidy picking the over or under for win totals and he writes to take the under for Texas Tech at 5.5:

UNDER. Kliff Kingsbury will continue to be good looking. His football team will continue to be the opposite of that. The offense will be fun, though. So, you know, there’s that.

I mean, how can you argue with that analysis?

If you would like some preseason motivation, Spokesman’s Jim Allen writes not to worry really that much about Texas Tech:

The money-game opener at Texas Tech isn’t as daunting as it sounds (the Red Raiders were 5-7 last year and had the worst defense in FBS last year). Advantage: Tech, but not by much.

ProFootballTalk had Kliff Kingsbury on PFT Live (I couldn’t find the link to actually listen) and Kingsbury says that spread quarterbacks are ready for the NFL, but you can’t ask them to do things that they’re not good at:

“Look at some of the players playing at a very high level now, at a young age, and it speaks for itself,” Kingsbury said. “Dak Prescott jumps out. He had one of the greatest rookie seasons in NFL history last year. He played in a spread offense at Mississippi State. Cam Newton played in the spread and the list goes on. Jared Goff was the first pick in the draft and he played in one, Patrick Mahomes — all three that went in the first round this year played in one.”

Miscellaneous . . . Rivals’ Nick Krueger ranks the quarterback situations in the Big 12 and writes that Texas Tech’s situation is 5th in the Big 12, behind TCU, which I think will not be accurate by the end of the year . . .